The president was speaking in Lilongwe during a press briefing on his visit to Malta where he attended the Commonwealth Heads of State and Government summit, Global African Investment Summit in London and the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in South Africa.
President Mutharika said his visits were a success as he urged investors to come to Malawi to invest in areas of education, Health, transport and infrastructure development among others.
President Mutharika also said he had asked investors to specifically consider investing in the health sector in the country saying there is a big movement in the world to invest in that sector.
On the food situation, Mutharika re-assured people in the country that no one is going to die of hunger.He said his administration has empowered ADMARC to make sure that Maize reach out to all corners of the country.He said the emergency food response program to areas that have been worst hit by shortage of food is on track.
On the Electricity problem the country is facing, the President said his government is doing everything possible to curb it. He said it’s a well known fact that climate change which has brought about the lowering of water levels has not affected Malawi only but even Zambia. He however said his government is doing all it can to minimize the impact of the blackouts.
Mutharika also said he wants the ‘nonsense’ on presidential jet to come to an end.
During the press conference, the President briefed the media the hurdles he faced and stressed that nothing was created, it was a true representation of what he went through.
But when asked if government has plans to buy a jet, Mutharika said there are no such plans.
“Let me answer the question once and for all. And then I hope this nonsense will stop. The government has no plans to buy a jet. The government has no plans, the government has no plans. So, I hope this brings to an end [this issue]. Ok? We have no plans to buy a jet. Period. Let’s leave this obsession about the jet and move on,” Mutharika said.
He also explained some of the issues he raised in an interview with the BBC, concerning the presidential jet that was sold during the People’s Party (PP) regime.
“I said the jet was sold to somebody, we don’t know who it was sold to really. I think the government is investigating. That there was some mystery. If you remember correctly, on the same day, the president then said that it was sold in order to offset some kind of money we owed some company for arms. On the same day the Minister of Finance then said the jet was sold in order to buy fertilizer. That’s where I said there was a contradiction. We are trying to investigate.,” Mutharika said.
He however asked Malawians and Journalist to stop the blame game saying it slows down development as it has the potential to deter away prospective investors.
